Development and use of a Biological Rhythm Interview

Abstract

Introduction:As several lines of evidence point to irregular biological rhythms in bipolar disorder, and its disruption may lead to new illness episodes, having an instrument that measures biological rhythms is critical. This report describes the validation of a new instrument, the Biological Rhythms Interview of Assessment in Neuropsychiatry (BRIAN), designed to assess biological rhythms in the clinical setting.Methods:Eighty-one outpatients with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder and 79 control subjects matched for type of health service used, sex, age and educational level were consecutively recruited. After a pilot study, 18 items evaluating sleep, activities, social rhythm and eating pattern were probed for discriminant, content and construct validity, concurrent validity with the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), internal consistency and test-retest reliability.Results:A three-factor solution, termed sleep/ social rhythm factor, activity factor and feeding factor, provided the best theoretical and most parsimonious account of the data; items essentially loaded in factors as theoretically intended, with the exception of the sleep and social scales, which formed a single factor. Test-retest reliability and internal consistency were excellent. Highly significant differences between the two groups were found for the whole scale and for each BRIAN factor. Total BRIAN scores were highly correlated with the global PSQI score.Discussion:The BRIAN scale presents a consistent profile of validity and reliability. Its use may help clinicians to better assess their patients and researchers to improve the evaluation of the impact of novel therapies targeting biological rhythm pathways.

Association of functioning and quality of life with objective and subjective measures of sleep and biological rhythms in major depressive and bipolar disorder

“…Subjective disturbances in biological rhythms were assessed using the self-report Biological Rhythms Interview of Assessment in Neuropsychiatry (BRIAN; Giglio et al, 2009). The BRIAN is an 18-item self-report questionnaire, developed for use in mood disorder populations, which monitors biological rhythm disruption over the preceding 15 days, evaluating sleep, activity, eating patterns and social patterns.…”

Sleep and circadian rhythm disturbance in bipolar disorder

“…Quality of life (QoL) was assessed with the BD-specific scale, the QoL.BD (Michalak & Murray, 2010). Subjective sleep and circadian rhythm was assessed using: the Biological Rhythms Interview of Assessment in Neuropsychiatry (BRIAN; Giglio et al 2009), the PSQI where a score >5 indicates clinically significant poor sleep quality (Buysse et al 1989) and the ESS where a score ⩾10 indicates excessive daytime sleepiness (Johns, 1991). A short version of the morningness/eveningness questionnaire (Horne & Ostberg, 1976) was also used on day 1 of the study to assess chronotype.…”

Daytime sleepiness, sleep disturbance and functioning impairment in bipolar disorder

“…They were frequency matched for type of health service used, sex, age and educational level. This group was screened with the non‐patient version of the SCID to exclude current psychiatry morbidity, had no first‐degree relatives with BD, schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders 7 , 8 , 9 . Participants gave written informed consent before entering the study, which was approved by the local ethics committee.…”